PIPPA'S HANUKKAH HUNT

In this rhyming holiday tale, Pippa the mouse sets out to make latkes for all her friends.

Unfortunately, Pippa’s potatoes have all inexplicably disappeared. She pulls her sled up a snowy hill to ask her friends for help. One by one, each creature offers up their own potatoes, only to discover that they, too, have gone missing. Instead, they share what they do have: beets, carrots, and leeks. When Pippa gets home, she is greeted by penitent hare children returning all the stolen spuds. Pippa invites them to stay and join the party. As her friends begin to arrive with jelly doughnuts, dreidels, and other Hanukkah treats, they are inspired to combine all the colorful vegetables to make rainbow latkes. The art is cozy and cheerful; keen-eyed readers may solve the mystery of who took the taters on their own, by spotting the bunnies hidden in the backgrounds. The solution is anticlimactic, however, as Pippa doesn’t solve the mystery herself; the rabbits simply turn up and apologize. Furthermore, the hare children’s reasons for stealing the potatoes are somewhat nonsensical, and their promise to atone the following spring lacks immediacy. The rhyme and meter mostly scan well, guided by repetition of key phrases. Overall, though, the book tries to be both a mystery and a parable about community and, perhaps as a result, doesn’t manage to fully realize either one. Backmatter introduces the story of Hanukkah and some of its symbols.

Sweet visuals but a less than compelling story.